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Topic: Like Me (Read 1114 times)

A coming-of-age story about a young woman who sets out on a crime spree that she broadcasts on social media.

Written and Directed by Robert MocklerStarring Addisson Timlin, Larry FessendenRelease - Theatrical in January 2018, VOD in March 2018

Quote from: Eric Kohn, IndieWire

There may be no idea more contemporary than a demented character using the internet in the reckless pursuit of fame. Writer-director Rob Mockler’s debut, “Like Me,” distills that motif to a ferocious young woman so compelled to create online sensations that they drive her insane. It’s an obvious conceit and doesn’t offer new insights, but Mockler transforms the material into a solid thriller with an edgy vision of millennial lunacy, sketching out a psychopath unique to the viral video age.

That would be Kiya (Addison Timlin), a mysterious prankster first seen recording a convenience store clerk late at night as she puts a gun to his head and he begs for his life. The video instantly takes off, generating heated debates across the web and Mockler’s stylish montage captures the overlapping conversations with a knack for featuring the disorienting chaos of modern discourse.

[...]

“Like Me” falls in line with contemporary tech-thrillers like “King Kelly” and “Nerve,” in which young people exploit digital tools to fixate on the dangerous extremes of exhibitionism. Kiya’s a fascinating entry in part because she has no purpose other than her relentless quest to capture bizarre events and share them with the world. Taking a homeless man to a diner, she toys with her food to a grotesque degree, and it’s unclear what will happen next.

[...]

Mockler’s imagery is a bit all over the place, but his reference points are clear. Equal parts “Spring Breakers” and “Requiem for a Dream,” the neon-soaked palette could exist in the same unhinged universes. At times the imagery suggests an eagerness to funnel existing avant-garde traditions into a fresh narrative context. At one point, Kiya playfully attempts to seduce Marshall by dangling from the ceiling in a hammock, her face obscured, like some anthropomorphized version of the human reproductive system out of Matthew Barney’s “Cremaster” cycle

Caught this when it was playing at the Arena Cinelouge. Interesting small space. Could have sworn this thread had more postz but perhaps I hallucinated a shoutbox convo onto here.

SPOILERZ

The first act had me hooked, and there's some special production design + costuming during the motel scenes, the webby ones, but even long before Larry enters the picture, its momentum goes sluggish. Felt so long that the final peaceful shot actually brought me near serenity to see a shot without any of that pesky scene-gobblerz performance. Finally the kid was gone. The boi'z vlog interjections took me out of the atmosphere Addison and Larry built up. I didn't know it was the last shot but it's the kinda shot you feel might be.

If the obnoxiousness had lent itself to actual critique, there'd be more to recommend.

Arena is a cool place though. i saw Bound by Flesh there, and i'll remember that experience 'til death. that was the right place to see that movie. like when i saw Zoo in Egyptian's Spielberg Theatre, that screen under the middle of the Egyptian. it's just a coincidence that those are both docs. i think fringe cinema stuff is one of the treasures of Los Angeles.